1989 Dodge pickup

[DoubleO7]

Here ya go, all done, just pay the piper.......................

1993 $18k

 

[used red MN]

C

Here ya go, all done, just pay the piper.......................

1993 $18k
View attachment 98660

Cash in your college books and cruise to the poor house in style. This will probably also smoke old blue’s Post Toasties.

 

[DoubleO7]

C

Cash in your college books and cruise to the poor house in style. This will probably also smoke old blue’s Post Toasties.

I really like the extra plush carpet!!

 

[Gabby Hayes]

I have the chance to buy a 1989, 3/4 ton dodge pickup for what I think to be a good price. It is a 5.9 Cummins with a good trans and the heaviest front axle you could get at the time, which I am told is a 4000lb axle. It has 4WD is a regular cab and a long bed. Lastly, if memory serves me it is not geared too awfully low as they go. But anyway, the price is right. The catch is that the parts afore mentioned are the only good parts on it... Desperately needs a new body and frame.

Opinions?

My neighbor bought a VERY Nice 1987 Chevrolet dually. It was in beautiful shape body wise. He put a new Cummins diesel engine in it and a manual multi-speed transmission in it. He hauls a lot of vehicles because his business is powering up older vehicles and restoring them. He has a 69 Mustang that he races in Texas, Colorado and Des Moines on the Goody's Racing tours.
He found out in a hurry that it wouldn't keep up in the traffic on the Interstates and was unstable at times at the higher speeds. He worked and worked on the braking system and he said it was always scary whenever he had to come to a fast stop. He never was happy when he was towing his trailers. He still has it but bought a never GMC truck for hauling.

 

[ss55]

Do you really want to mess with a 35 year old truck and try to make anything decent. You keep talking about the price , to me man could not buy something that old to be a bargain, more like a money pit if they gave it to you.

Young people often leave home and move around a few times to follow job opportunities. Storage costs and moving cost are big expenses that can add up fast while waiting to find the time to finish a long term project.

 

[Don B.]

Huh. Tempting
I have this 83 d250 that is a bare rolling frame, I have a 90 rust free cab that came off of a Cummins truck, and the rest of a rust free body to go back on.... I wasn't thinking about a Cummins swap but really it could work. There was an auction Iowa my kid sent me the info for last week and the guy had several Cummins trucks. Among them was a rolling frame, no body with a getrag 5 speed and at the time I looked it was only like $600. He had a running driving fairly clean club cab one with a cap with only something like 113k on it, and at the time that one had a bid of around $6g's on it ... And there were more. At this point I'm looking to put mine back together with a carbureted 360 gas motor and Nv4500 5 speed in place of the original 318/727 which is still running around in my son's 72 Plymouth wagon.

 

[cumminstinkerer]

Huh. Tempting
I have this 83 d250 that is a bare rolling frame, I have a 90 rust free cab that came off of a Cummins truck, and the rest of a rust free body to go back on.... I wasn't thinking about a Cummins swap but really it could work. There was an auction Iowa my kid sent me the info for last week and the guy had several Cummins trucks. Among them was a rolling frame, no body with a getrag 5 speed and at the time I looked it was only like $600. He had a running driving fairly clean club cab one with a cap with only something like 113k on it, and at the time that one had a bid of around $6g's on it ... And there were more. At this point I'm looking to put mine back together with a carbureted 360 gas motor and Nv4500 5 speed in place of the original 318/727 which is still running around in my son's 72 Plymouth wagon.

Don, you will have issues getting the NVG4500 to work, there is a way I believe, but the one used in the later trucks the shifter tower is to far towards the rear, it puts the shifter under the front of the front seat even slid clear back, that would be tricky to get the actual shift lever to get forward far enough to work. drive shaft is obviously an issue, so is clutch setup, been down that road on a 93 D250, it could be done just was a lot of fancy fab work, PM me I know where there is a good getrag, also have to make sure flywheel is from a 360, they are specific, 318 won't interchange nor will v10

 

[Don B.]

My son put one in an 89 ramcharger a couple of years ago, I do know there are a couple of different versions of that trans. Like Chevy ones 95-older have a different Bell housing pattern that won't work on a Dodge, 96-up will, there's supposed to be a difference between gas and diesel version, but I don't know all of them.
One thing I was wondering about is whether I'd have to swap to the wide trans tunnel in the cab or could I make it work with the 2wd/auto trans tunnel.. I think I have a wide tunnel here somewhere, wish I could find one of the 70s bolt on ones I have the cab off, the frame is a bare roller at the moment.
I'll take you up on the pm once I get farther into it...
Didn't they start using these transmissions during 91 or 92 while that body style was still current?
I do have leads on bell housings for the 318/360 from 3 different sources.... Have shipping estimate inquiries into 2 of those

 

[Don B.]

Did they ever make a Bell housing to mate a gas 360 to the getrag

 

[cumminstinkerer]

Neve saw aa NVG 4500 in a pre 94, gas diesel difference is input shaft splines and diameter, I am not sure about the auto 2wd diesel diesel cab on that vintage, I know manuals all had the big tunnel, Ramchargers would be somewhat easier since most had bucket seats. It can be done then but shifter is gonna be back a lot further than the somewhat normal position

 

[cumminstinkerer]

I cant answer the getrag to 360 either, sorry. If you dont have the wide tunnel I know where there is one of those that could be had fairly easy

 

[Don B.]

Mind me asking about where you're at? I'm near Chicago

 

[cumminstinkerer]

near des moines

 

[Don B.]

Huh not terrible far... As long as I don't have to go thru cedar rapids to get there... 2 weeks after the only time I have ever been thru there (which was only 5 weeks ago) I got a damn speeding ticket by mail from those SOBs....I'm still pizzed about that. On 180 (or 380?) at diagonal road wherever that was....I was out there making 2 stops for parts for this truck via CL and marketplace.